The utter generosity of the poor humbles us. They give rice to every mendicant even when their rice is getting over. That is what needs to be understood - their greatnes and their richness. That is what they are defined by. That they are impoverished is what defines us.
We are the cause of that poverty - and the onus is on us to share deeply and completely. (nagesh333@gmail.com)

Saturday, 24 December 2016

Karna's generosity

Once Krishna and Arjuna were walking towards a village. Arjuna was
pestering Krishna, asking him why Karna should be considered an
unparallelled Donor & not me.?

Krishna, turned two mountains into gold.
Then said "Arjuna, distribute these two Gold mountains among villagers, but you must donate every bit of it ".
Arjuna went into the village, and proclaimed he was going to donate
gold to every villager, and asked them to gather near the mountain. The
villagers sang his praises and Arjuna walked towards the mountain with a
huffed up chest. For two days and two nights Arjuna shovelled gold
from the mountain and donated to each villager. The mountains did not
diminish in their slightest. Most villagers came back and stood in
queue within minutes. Now Arjuna was exhausted, but not ready to let go
of Ego, told Krishna he couldn't go on any longer without rest. Here Krishna called Karna and told him to donate every bit of two Gold mountains. karna called two villagers, and said "Those two Gold mountains are yours " and walked away. Arjuna sat dumbfounded. Why hadn't this thought occurred to him?
Krishna smiled mischievously and told him "Arjuna, subconsciously, you
were attracted to the gold, you regretfully gave it away to each
villager, giving them what you thought was a generous amount. Thus the
size of your donation to each villager depended only on your
imagination. Karna holds no such reservations. Look at him walking
away after giving away a fortune, he doesn't expect people to sing his
praises, he doesn't even care if people talk good or bad about him
behind his back. That is the sign of a man already on the path of
enlightenment".

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About Me

In 1995, Paalaguttapalle (Dalitwada) became home. After studying engineering, working for three years, I resigned, and started looking for more meaningful and socially relevent work. An understanding of Gandhi gave the paradigm, and the search led to this village. Nagesh also came 'looking for a village to work in', and this village became home. As neighbours, friends and teacher we became part of the village ... and saw some of the timeless wisdom of villages ...